This is the Last Time We Can Have This Conversation

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August 30, 2022 | Mark Altman

Performance improvement is a critical part of every leader’s job – but if you’re like most leaders, it’s probably something you don’t enjoy, because you end up having the same conversations with the same employees repeatedly.

When motivating people to change their behavior, we often default to thinking we have two options: the carrot and the stick. We can incentivize and reward good behavior and we can disincentivize and threaten consequences for bad behavior.

We grew up fearing (or at least being aware of) the consequences of our behavior. If we didn’t behave, we got in trouble. At school, if we misbehaved in class, we were sent to the principal or received detention. 

In the corporate world, when someone is not doing what they are supposed to do – not turning in projects, showing up late to meetings, not responding to communications in a timely manner – it is tempting to force compliance to improve poor performance. But amidst a labor shortage and fear of losing credibility and trust with your team, are consequences really your best choice? 

If rewards aren’t enough and consequences have consequences, what is left in the toolbox? Stay tuned for next week’s post to learn an influential way to create an accountable culture with a great tool for performance improvement.

Enjoy this post? Contact us at MindsetGo to empower your leaders and teams to build confidence, develop skills, and shift mindsets and habits for lasting change.

Three-Step Self-Reflection Process to Be Accountable and Get Clarity

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July 19, 2022 | Mark Altman

As a leader who is managing multiple generations, personalities, and workplace challenges, it can be easy to lose faith in your team. When people fail to meet our expectations regarding delegation, problem-solving, decision-making, or follow-through, you can start to develop a discouraged and impatient mindset. This often results in, among other things, starting to do everything yourself.

By taking on more and delegating less, leaders typically become more frustrated and resentful, work longer hours, experience burnout faster, and are less productive.

Here are three elements of self-awareness to use when you start feeling disappointed or that you are being met with resistance.

Three-Step Self-Reflection Process

Inner Voice: Everything I do is met with resistance .
Self-Awareness: Is it truly everything or just with certain people and situations?

Inner Voice: Why are some things I do met with fear and resistance?
Self-Awareness: People don’t want to be held accountable…OR perhaps they are dealing with their own challenges they don’t know how to effectively articulate. OR perhaps I could present and communicate more effectively so they would be more open to change.

Inner Voice: On top of everything else, nobody is responding to the emails I send.
Self-Awareness: A lot of factors contribute to why people don’t respond to messages so I won’t assume this reflects on me or this person’s perception of me or the message. I should speak to them and combine empathy and accountability to find out what is getting in the way of this aspect of their job.

Enjoy this post? Contact us at MindsetGo to empower your leaders and teams to build confidence, develop skills, and shift mindsets and habits for lasting change.

How to Address Unmet Expectations

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July 19, 2022 | Mark Altman

Category:

Managing up, down, and across

The Problem:

Your team member didn’t follow instructions on a project and now you’re frustrated and unclear why this person didn’t meet expectations.

The Way You’ve Always Done It: 

When assessing other people’s intentions, most people default to either a glass half-empty or glass half-full approach. 

  • Glass half-empty: You assume that your team member had negative intentions. They were out to get you, acting maliciously, passive aggressive, etc. 
  • Glass half-full: You assume that your team member had positive intentions. Perhaps they had a bad day, are dealing with something personal that distracted them, didn’t fully understand the instructions from the outset, etc. 
The Issue with Assumptions: 

At MindsetGo, we don’t believe in assuming either positive or negative intent. When you assume: 

  • Negative intent: You end up in a negative emotional loop (frustration, anger, defensiveness) that isn’t useful for getting to the root cause of the issue. 
  • Positive intent: You may miss cues and signs indicating that something is in fact wrong that needs addressing. 
The MindsetGo Approach: 

Instead of defaulting to the positive or negative when assessing someone’s intentions, try defaulting to curiosity: “I wonder why Susie did that, wrote that, or said that…”

Curiosity disrupts your default thought processes and allows you to be in an information-gathering state that helps you clearly assess the situation. It also disrupts your team member’s thought process, as they likely know they didn’t meet expectations and may be bracing for the worst.

Curiosity is a practice – and not always an easy one. If you are finding it difficult to default to curiosity, allow yourself a moment to feel your frustration, anger, etc., and then decide how you want to show up and lead. 

Takeaways: 
  • When assessing someone’s intentions, instead of defaulting to the positive (where you might miss something critical) or negative (where you’ll end up frustrated), default to curiosity (where you can gather information to accurately assess the situation). 
  • If you struggle to be curious when someone has disappointed you or not met your expectations, allow yourself to feel your feelings and then make a choice about how you want to show up and what kind of leader you want to be.

Content derived from MindsetGo Training Programs: Managing Yourself; Courageous Conversations; Leading with Emotional Intelligence; Manager as a Coach 

Enjoy this post? Contact us at MindsetGo to empower your leaders and teams to build confidence, develop skills, and shift mindsets and habits for lasting change.

How to Stop Putting Out Fires

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July 5, 2022 | Mark Altman 

Category:

Managing yourself

The Problem:

Most days, you find yourself reacting to urgent task after urgent task, putting out fires, rather than proactively tackling your most important projects. 

The Root Cause: 
  • Company culture doesn’t promote self-advocacy or setting boundaries.
  • Your perception is that there is no time to address higher priorities.
  • You may feel that if you don’t respond to high-urgency tasks immediately, you won’t meet expectations and/or there will be negative consequences. 
The Resolution: 

Build Self-Awareness 

First, build self-awareness by recognizing the consequences of constantly putting out fires and behaving reactively: 

  1. You may be missing opportunities to set and manage expectations. 
  2. You may not have a method to prioritize your high-level responsibilities proactively. 
  3. You may not be communicating updates on projects and tasks to your team in a timely manner. 

Include on your list other consequences you are experiencing. By taking the time to understand the consequences of this behavior, you will be more motivated to change it. 

Set Reminders to Refocus and Reprioritize 

Use your phone or calendar to help you refocus and reprioritize. Set two reminders for yourself at 11am and 2pm to pause, take a breath, and ensure that you are working on your highest-priority tasks. If meetings come up at those times, find two other checkpoints over the course of the day to look up and disrupt your thought process. 

Do a Daily Sweep-Through 

Once a day, do a sweep-through of your Slack messages, texts, incoming emails and voicemails, Asana, etc. – any place you communicate with your team – and determine who needs to be updated on your projects and tasks. 

  1. Note all tasks that require communication/follow-up, including: 
    1. Inbound emails
    2. Texts
    3. Teams/Slack messages
    4. Sent items
  2. Assign deadlines to those tasks
  3. Determine who on your team needs updates on those tasks
  4. Communicate updates
  5. Ensure you are up to date on all upcoming meetings
    1. Reschedule and cancel as needed
  6. Use the Eisenhower Box to reassign things that aren’t priorities 

Takeaways: 

  • The first step in any habit change is to build awareness to catch yourself in your old habits of being reactive. 
  • To implement a new behavior, identify the motivators and benefits of doing so. Shift your mindset from “have to” and instead think “want to.” 
  • Using the simple sweep-through method allows you to check all sources of communication to reset and manage your own and other people’s expectations. 

Content derived from the MindsetGo Training/Coaching Program: Managing Yourself 

Enjoy this post? Contact us at MindsetGo to empower your leaders and teams to build confidence, develop skills, and shift mindsets and habits for lasting change.

Stop Having Repeat Conversations with Your Team (Here’s How)

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May 17, 2022 | Mark Altman 

Picture this: it’s Monday morning and you’re holding your weekly team meeting. You’re brainstorming how to improve lead capture on your website, and as Natalie is sharing an idea, Tom jumps in with his thoughts, steamrolling right over her.  

You can see Natalie bristle with frustration and then go quiet the rest of the meeting. Tom’s idea was a good one, but now you’re missing out on Natalie and likely other team members’ contributions. A little self-awareness on Tom’s part would go a long way here – and the worst part is, you’ve addressed this issue with him before. What are you missing? 

Here are our keys to more effective conversations – so you can have them once, not several times. 

First, make the conversation safe and minimize anxiety by setting it up as follows. 

You: Hey Tom, do you have a few minutes to talk? Can we do a quick 15-minute zoom?  

Tom: Sure, what’s it about?     

You: I’ve just been reflecting on something, and I want to pick your brain.

Then, start the conversation by gauging the person’s self-awareness around their behavior. 

You: So, I wanted to pick your brain about how our team meetings are going. What are your thoughts?  

Tom: They’re fine, I guess. Why do you ask ?

At this point, do two things:

  1. Get alignment on the problem.
  2. Share your perceptions and observations using I statements. 

You: The reason why I asked is because my perception is in meetings sometimes you tend to interrupt. (Pause) And I was just wondering, does that surprise you that I’m saying that? 

If your employee becomes defensive or starts listing excuses, provide a tangible example of their behavior. 

Tom: Kind of. No one has ever given me that feedback before.  

You: No problem. I understand. So, I’m going to give you an example if that’s okay, just so you can understand my perspective.  

Tom: Okay, sure.

You: Yesterday, when Natalie was sharing during our brainstorm on lead capture, you jumped in before she had a chance to finish speaking. I noticed she seemed frustrated and didn’t share much after that. 

Tom: Yeah, I guess I could see that.

Now, here is where many leaders get it wrong because they make an ask, and given the hierarchy of leader and team member, of course the person will agree.  

Common Leadership Response: So, I am asking you to be mindful of not interrupting when someone else is sharing their thoughts. 

In addition, leaders who go this route:

  • Haven’t taken time to understand the root cause of the problem
  • Don’t know if their team member is motivated to change their behavior
  • Don’t know if their team member has the skills to change their behavior
  • Are seeking compliance instead of collaboration 

Why is Tom jumping into conversations at inappropriate times? How long has he had this habit? Does he see a compelling reason to change his behavior? Does he know how to go about changing his behavior? 

Without the emotional and conversational intelligence to address these questions and challenges, most leaders end up having the same conversations and making the same requests repeatedly without results. 

At MindsetGo, we build confidence, develop skills, and shift mindsets to create lasting habit and behavior change. If you’re ready to develop the emotional and conversational intelligence you need to stop having repeat conversations, contact us today. It never hurts to talk!

Enjoy this post? Contact us at MindsetGo to empower your leaders and teams to build confidence, develop skills, and shift mindsets and habits for lasting change.

Proactive Change: “If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It” is Bad Advice. Here’s Why

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January 24, 2022 | Mark Altman & Megan Fine 

Pause for a moment and tell me: how do you start your workday?

Do you sit down and open your inbox to 37 new emails…amidst the other 2,347 sitting there unfiled? Do you dig through the piles of paper on your desk to find that to-do list you started a couple days ago? Do you dive into one project, only to jump to another, and then forget where you were when you hear the chime of your Slack notifications?

It’s not so bad though, right? Your disorganization is costing you, what, maybe 10 minutes a day sorting through things to find what you really need or get focused. 

But if you think about it…if you’re working 250 days of the year, you’re actually losing 2,500 minutes. 42 hours. An entire work week of productivity. Ouch.

Most people don’t bother changing until their situation gets bad – until they get the poor performance review, or their spouse says, “We need to talk,” or their doctor sits them down for the test results no one wants to get back. 

This way of being is reactive, but there is a better way. It’s being proactive and acting before the situation escalates out of control and hands you consequences that you’d rather not experience. 

But being proactive is challenging, which is why so many of us don’t bother to do it. Everything’s fine, good enough, right? To work towards being more proactive, you must first be reflective and consider what changes might be worth making. To do that, consider these questions: 

If I don’t bother changing: 

  • What opportunities might I miss out on? 
  • What kind of problems might arise? 
  • What is the ultimate cost of doing nothing? 
  • Where will I be in 6 months, 1 year, 10 years? 

If I do bother changing: 

  • What good things might become possible? 
  • What might I be able to do that I can’t do now? 
  • What would be the best part of that? 
  • Where could I be in 6 months, 1 year, 10 years? 

As a leader, helping your team move from acting reactively, to being reflective, to acting proactively is an excellent ROI on your time. By walking people through the consequences of inaction and the benefits of making positive changes, you can motivate them to take action they otherwise wouldn’t have to optimize their personal and professional lives. 

10 minutes a day is 42 hours a year. What better things could you do with all that time? If you have a team of 10, what could you do with 10 extra work weeks each year? 

It’s time to retire, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” and lean into, “If it ain’t broke yet, it’s a great time to optimize!” 

Enjoy this post? Contact us to empower your leaders and teams to build the confidence, develop the skills, and embrace the mindset to create lasting habit and behavior change. 

MindsetGo Acquires Whole Health Co, LLC to Address the Great Resignation and Build Engaged and Effective Workforces

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Boston, MA – January 6, 2022 | MindsetGo announced today the acquisition of Whole Health Co, LLC, a corporate wellness company offering custom services for businesses and schools. Whole Health Co-founder Patty Burke, CHC, CLC, joins MindsetGo as Director of Wellness, bringing her expertise in lifestyle habit change and an experienced team of health coaches and wellness experts to MindsetGo.

The acquisition expands MindsetGo’s existing organizational development services to also include mental, physical, and emotional support. These expanded offerings will in turn foster happy, productive, and resilient employees both in and out of the workplace.

U.S. employees are resigning in record-breaking numbers (one in four workers quit their jobs in 2021). This phenomenon, dubbed by economists as the Great Resignation, immediately presents employers with challenges including a depleted workforce, employee engagement, and retention. Organizations are seeing their leadership burn out while experiencing higher levels of anxiety and stress due to increased workloads and the additional challenges of remote work.

“When organizations evaluate their biggest challenges, mental and emotional wellness are typically not on the top of the list,” said Mark Altman, Founder of MindsetGo. “In fact, emotional intelligence and resiliency directly support people’s ability to manage themselves, cope with difficult people, navigate conflict, and adapt to change.” Whereas companies once invested in employee wellness simply to help lower health insurance costs, they are now prioritizing it to retain and support their talent. With the high cost of turnover (in some cases, one to two times an employee’s salary), they can’t afford not to invest in their employees’ well-being and success.

“More than ever, companies need support for attracting and retaining top talent as well as overcoming the challenges of an unstable labor market,” said Burke. “Providing support, resources, training, and personalized coaching for valued leaders and staff is critical for boosting employee productivity and ultimately, enhancing bottom lines.”

Survey data from Ginger’s “Third Annual Workforce Attitudes Toward Mental Health Report” revealed that a stunning 96% of CEOs consider their employee mental health efforts adequate, while only 69% of employees agree, revealing a gap between policy and initiative. What differentiates MindsetGo from other training and coaching organizations is a philosophy that focuses on habit change. Both Altman and Burke believe in going beyond simply educating clients, to helping people translate knowledge into action. They provide proven strategies, guidance, and encouragement that motivate people to take the steps they need to thrive, and not just survive, in both their personal and professional lives.

For more information, please contact MindsetGo.

 

About MindsetGo

MindsetGo empowers leaders, teams, and individuals to build the confidence, develop the skills, and embrace the mindset to create lasting habit and behavior change. Our methodology to support people in becoming more confident and effective communicators is based on helping them develop and use three communication components: emotional, multi-generational, and conversational intelligence. Being a confident communicator is not just the way you act, talk, and look; it’s a habitual way of thinking and reacting to various life situations.

Contact Mark Altman at 978-793-1159 or maltman@mindsetgo.com

 

Let’s Get Engaged!

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Employee Disengagement

One of the most common observations about employees nowadays is that they are disengaged. But, what did we expect? We have seldom created a culture of open and honest communication and as a practical rule, that environment will not invent itself. It can only happen intentionally. Only by creating an atmosphere where employees feel engaged and valued, can we get genuine answers to those vital questions. Companies will often bring in outside consultants to do engagement surveys to gather more information about their employees. This is a necessary first step, however the ensuing critical thinking process is what will determine if and how to use the survey results.

Actions Need to Equal Words

Are you prepared to make changes if employees communicate they’re unhappy? Are you prepared to address their concerns if enough people are asking? We always advise companies to not ask questions you aren’t prepared to act on and have a clear metric on how many people need to voice a frustration to motivate you to change. Without some clear understanding of what the organization is prepared and able to do, any engagement survey is unlikely to fulfill its promise.

Next Steps

A difficult decision to make with assessments is whether to make them anonymous. When employees know that the assessment isn’t about punishment or judgment, and there are no consequences, the individuals will be more apt to be open and honest with their communication to leadership. On the flip side, leadership must acknowledge that creating the conditions for open conversation isn’t likely to happen if there is no past precedent. The challenge we help organizations with is how to create that culture for authentic sharing of thoughts, ideas, feelings, and general feedback. We must prepare for these crucial conversations before, during, and after we inquire about our employees’ engagement.

Accomplishing Success

After all, W. Edwards Deming, the father of modern quality, reminded us of two things—that the most important things in a company can’t be measured, and that people are entitled to enjoy their work.

For more information on how MindsetGo can help your company culture, improve internal and external communication among your leaders and teams, and improve employee engagement, please check out MindsetGo.com or call us at 978-206-1535.

Address Opposition, Build Confidence

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ADDRESS OPPOSITION, BUILD CONFIDENCE

2 hours, half-day, or full-day

OVERVIEW

Employees almost always associate change as something negative. Changes in administration, updates to procedures and regulations, altering policy, and implementing new technology or software in the workplace for employees can mean lost productivity, adjusting processes they have had in place for years, or learning an entirely new skill.

Managers, leaders, and executives can make the transition of change positive, efficient, and respected by employees and staff by conveying to their workers how grateful they are for the work they do. By expressing gratitude, appreciation, and showcasing the value employees bring to the organization, trust is built, and employees are more receptive to changing their behaviors and habits to implement new policies, initiatives, and more. By connecting and engaging with employees, leaders can address opposition to change, build employees’ confidence in their abilities, and increase acceptance all around.

  • Resistance to implementing changes in policy have stalled progress or productivity
  • Employees are losing faith in the significance or importance of a change/policy
  • Difficulty efficiently prioritizing the issues or challenges that unexpectedly appear

  • Adaptability
  • Modeling behavior
  • Emotional Intelligence
  • Relationship Intelligence

  • Get to the root cause of why your employees believe change is negative
  • Develop effective coping mechanisms with your employees to respond to changes in and out of the workplace
  • Apply learned techniques in daily, weekly, and monthly, review sessions with employees

Download Workshop PDFRequest Additional Information

DELIVERY OPTIONS

Live In-Person Workshop

Live Webinar

On-Demand eLearning Program

On-Demand Support Tools

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

Social Influencers

Changemakers

High-potentials

Those who struggle to be assertive

HR team members

First time leaders through seasoned managers

No formal leadership training

Managers who need higher performance from their team

Back To TopicsBack To Change Management

Adapt: How to Deal with Roadblocks Along the Way

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ADAPT: HOW TO DEAL WITH ROADBLOCKS ALONG THE WAY

2 hours, half-day, or full-day

OVERVIEW

How will you prepare for the roadblocks ahead? Handling the volume and frequency of change today means we must become better at adjusting on the fly and adapting to evolving expectations and requirements. When employees are faced with too many change priorities, aren’t sure how to proceed, and aren’t even sure that an initiative is good for the organization, they take a wait-and-see attitude, looking to their bosses for direction and to their co-workers for clues about which aspects matter the most. This sort of uncertainty, deep down in an organization, can keep a change initiative from gaining momentum.

  • Challenges have delayed the progress of the implementation of certain changes or initiatives
  • Employees are losing faith in the significance or importance of a change/policy
  • Difficulty efficiently prioritizing the issues or challenges that unexpectedly appear

  • Adaptability
  • Modeling behavior
  • Establishing focus
  • Prioritization
  • Open and clear communication

  • Involve and assist your team members as they adjust to change
  • Anticipate, manage, and adapt to unexpected changes

Download Workshop PDFRequest Additional Information

DELIVERY OPTIONS

Live In-Person Workshop

Live Webinar

On-Demand eLearning Program

On-Demand Support Tools

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

Social Influencers

Changemakers

High-potentials

Those who struggle to be assertive

HR team members

First time leaders through seasoned managers

No formal leadership training

Managers who need higher performance from their team

Back To TopicsBack To Change Management

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